A new retelling of The Nutcracker but for adults? Color me intrigued. This story follows Marietta Stelle who longs to become a ballerina, but in 1906 her parents have other plans for her, particularly for her to become the wife of the mysterious and rich new toymaker who moved in next door, Dr. Drosselmeier. Marietta however, has sensed something wrong and dark about him and soon finds herself escaping him and his magic by running through a clock and entering into the magical snowy lands of Everwood. Now she finds herself trapped as a dancer for the king along with other women he has held captive and must join together to escape his clutches before he kills her. Throw in a dashing captain, a kick-ass fairy, and a warrior princess and what you get is definitely an interesting spin on the original classic. While the premise of this story had all the makings for something I would love, I found myself loving interest the further along I got into the book, I found myself not even caring as Marietta was in Everwood (which is essentially suppose to be the whole magical point of this book) which sucks. I didn’t really care for the romance and Marietta was a bit annoying for me, like at certain points I was questioning what was even going on in her head??? At one point she risks the plan the lives of the other two captives to say goodbye to her crush?? Mam, we are all gonna die and this is what you’re gonna risk our lives for? This definitely reads more like YA than adult. Sadly this book just didn’t meet my expectations and the premise of the book was so good but the execution never really met up to the potential. While I didn’t enjoy it as much, if you are a fan of the classic story definitely give this a try, maybe you’ll like it.

*Thanks Netgalley and Harper 360, HQ for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*